Irrawaddy/Time/AFP-Sept 23
Myanmar regime chief Min Aung Hlaing said he has been “extremely lenient” toward detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he has detained since ousting her from power over five years ago, and that whether she receives an amnesty “depends on her.” He made the remarks in an exclusive interview with US magazine TIME published on Wednesday. During the interview conducted in Naypyitaw, Min Aung Hlaing was asked about the possibility of releasing Aung San Suu Kyi. “A potential amnesty for [Aung San Suu Kyi] depends on her,” he told the magazine. He suggested that could change if “grounds for reconsideration emerge on our part,” TIME reported. The 81-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate was arrested alongside other democratically elected officials during the early hours of the February 1, 2021, military coup. She was later sentenced to a total of 35 years in prison by the regime on a series of fabricated charges and has been kept in undisclosed locations, denied visits by family members or lawyers. After a number of sentence reductions, she has some 13 years left to serve.
Min Aung Hlaing defended his treatment of the civilian leader, saying, “I have been extremely lenient toward her.” He claimed the military had made “every possible effort” to prevent the political crisis that led to the coup. Min Aung Hlaing retired as military chief and assumed the presidency in April, following elections widely condemned by rights groups and the public as fraud. He repeated allegations of electoral fraud in the 2020 general election, in which the Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy won a repeat landslide victory. According to TIME, he described the election as “one of the most disgraceful elections in democratic history,” saying there had been widespread electoral irregularities. International and local election observers declared the election largely free and fair. Since April, the coup leader-turned-president has accelerated a diplomatic push to gain legitimacy for his regime, but many nations including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations continue to voice concern about Aung San Suu Kyi, calling for her and all political prisoners to be released, and for an immediate end to the violence in the country.
In the TIME interview—Min Aung Hlaing’s first with Western media since the coup—he sought to portray his rebranded administration as pursuing a path toward what he described as a democratic system suited to Myanmar’s “culture, customs and traditions.” Read more at:
